Brooks on Beer: Cutting through the IPA haze

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Over the last two years or so, a fog has descended upon our IPAs, with a
new type of hop bomb taking front and center with a decidedly murkier
appearance. Say hello to the Hazy IPA. (Getty Images)

Courtesy of Greg Wilson

Belly up to the bar at Berkeley's Fieldwork Brewing or grab a seat outdoors
and sample a hoppy flight. (Photo courtesy of Greg Wilson)

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The new Fieldwork Taproom at Napa's Oxbow Public Market features a plethora of hoppy IPAs.
(Courtesy of Oxbow Public Market)

Sunset Development

An area near THE LOT movie complex in San Ramon's City Center specialty
center, in a conceptual image. The upscale City Center complex in San
Ramon's Bishop Ranch business park has added several tenants, including an
Equinox fitness center, the developer said Wednesday. Besides the new
Equinox, Fieldwork Brewing Company, Roam Artisan Burgers, Williams Sonoma
and West Elm are planning outlets at the San Ramon complex. THE LOT, a
cinema and entertainment center, will also be part of the development.
Sunset Development

You may have noticed the last time you visited your favorite watering hole that something’s going on with your beer. IPAs used to be bright, clear and golden or copper colored. And while some haze was acceptable at low levels — either from being chilled or from the hops — arguably the best examples of the IPA style were brilliantly clear, with the sun shining through them like a stained glass window in a cathedral.

But over the last two years or so, a fog has descended upon our IPAs, with a new type of hop bomb taking front and center with a decidedly murkier appearance. As it is with any emerging style, these beers are called by many names: New England-style IPA, Vermont-style IPA, juicy IPAs or — my personal choice for the one that should stick — hazy IPAs. It’s one of their defining characteristics: They’re as cloudy and pulpy as orange juice.

Their popularity may be new, but their origin isn’t. Pioneering brewer Greg Noonan began brewing hazy IPAs at his Vermont Pub & Brewery in the mid-1990s. But what really set the style in motion was another Vermont beer, The Alchemist’s Heady Topper. Because of its scarcity — and because it is delicious — it took on mythic status. Eventually breweries decided to simply make their own version of the cloudy IPA.

The other defining characteristic of hazy IPAs is their juiciness, with a mouthfeel similar to orange or grapefruit juice. The flavors are hoppy, as you’d expect with an IPA, but tend to be less bitter, emphasizing tropical fruit and vegetal characteristics mainly from the hops. Some also add less common grains, such as oats or wheat, specific yeast strains with special characteristics and even flour to create the haziness of the beer and give it its unique flavors.

It took imperial or double IPAs several years to gain widespread acceptance as a separate style, but hazy IPAs have jumped to the front of the line. In a relatively short time, the 2018 Brewers Association, which oversees the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup, has added the style — three of them, really — to its beer style guidelines under the rubric “Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ale,” “Juicy or Hazy Pale Ale” and “Juicy or Hazy Imperial or Double India Pale Ale.”

Last month, I helped judge hazy IPAs at the inaugural Hazy IPA Festival at Hayward’s The Bistro, which launched it as part of its 21st annual IPA Festival. Co-owner Vic Kralj was also instrumental in getting double IPAs recognized as a separate style, when he launched his Bistro Double IPA Festival in 2000.

Why add hazy to the Bistro’s IPA Festival? “The style is in its infancy, but if done right, this is a very drinkable beer,” Kralj says. “It is on fire right now for those that are making it correctly. Think tropical hops, low bitterness units — we’re attracting a whole new level of craft beer drinkers that would never drink a pale or IPA because of its bitterness.”

Some traditional brewers may have seen these initially as just another fad, but even the most tried-and-true breweries are offering their own versions now. Boston Beer released a Samuel Adams New England IPA, for example, and Sierra Nevada created Hazy Little Thing IPA.

There’s debate about the worthiness of hazy IPAs, as there is for any new trend, but for me it comes down simply to whether or not they taste good. The fact is, many of the best ones are delicious. Here are four great breweries making Hazy IPAs. Give them a try.

Cellarmaker Brewing

Cellarmaker’s DDH Cantaloupe Island won first place at the Bistro’s Hazy IPA Festival on April 14, but it’s already sold out. Not to worry. That’s Cellarmaker’s plan: continuous production of new and different small-batch beers. The brewery’s current tap list of 17 brews includes five IPAs and four pale ales. Stop by the San Francisco brewery (1150 Howard St.; cellarmakerbrewing.com) and try something new.

Moonraker Brewing

It’s hard to go wrong with the Auburn brewery’s (moonrakerbrewing.com) Yojo, a canned grapefruit IPA with tropical fruit flavors of papaya and mango. Look for Dojo, a double IPA, as well as Cloudy Judgment, an IPA brewed with Nelson hops, and Chain Shot, a traditional IPA that won first place at the Bistro’s IPA Festival.

Alvarado Street Brewery

With three locations in Monterey and Salinas, Alvarado Street (alvaradostreetbrewery.com) makes a wide array of hazy beers, all of them juicy and tasty, from the flagship Minesweeper IPA, to Contains No Juice, a DIPA juice bomb brewed with oats; Cold Pressed, a yeast-driven IPA; and Cool Runoffs, another DIPA, but with a newer, experimental yeast strain.

With locations in Berkeley, San Mateo, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento — and soon in San Ramon’s City Center Bishop Ranch — there’s no shortage of places to find Fieldwork’s many hazy beers. Some of my favorites include Pulp IPA, Hop & Glo DIPA, 22 Amarillo Avenue IPA, Broken Clouds and my favorite, Galaxy Juice, which is loaded with pineapple aromas and flavors and other tropical fruit character. You’ll find Fieldwork’s brewpubs at 1160 Sixth St. in Berkeley and 3030 S. Delaware St. in San Mateo; fieldworkbrewing.com.